


How Game of Thrones Could Have Ended

by shelovestoship



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Braime - Freeform, F/M, Gen, Gendrya - Freeform, if season 8 hadn't sucked, still Dark!Dany
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 17:18:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19816906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shelovestoship/pseuds/shelovestoship
Summary: Re-write possibility from 8x04 on. How things could (should?) have gone down in season 8, that would have been better than what we got while still hitting all the major plot points. Just the outline so far.





	How Game of Thrones Could Have Ended

While season 6 is the last season I felt truly made sense and mostly worked (and I do have an idea for a rewrite that starts with season 7 and possibly would make for both a season 8, 9 and 10) this is a “how could DxD have wrapped up” this show in a more satisfying way in about the same amount of screen time with still hitting most of the plot points in season 8.

These are the summaries of the 3 episodes I plan on re-plotting (and possibly making into a real fanfic at some point) taken straight from Wikipedia.

 **Bold** = original story

 _Italic_ = my additions

 ~~Crossed-out~~ = removed

Shall we begin?

**8x04 - The Last of The Starks**

**The survivors mourn and burn the dead. Daenerys legitimizes Gendry as a Baratheon, naming him Lord of Storm's End. Arya declines Gendry's subsequent marriage proposal. Jaime and Brienne become lovers. Bronn arrives to kill Jaime and Tyrion for Cersei but spares them in exchange for being promised Highgarden castle.**

**To protect her claim to the throne, Daenerys wants Jon to conceal his true parentage.**

~~Jon reveals his Targaryen claim to Sansa and Arya, swearing them to secrecy.~~ ~~Wanting Jon as king, Sansa tells Tyrion, who informs Varys.~~ _Jon, because he loves Daenerys does not tell his sisters. Bran, however, tells Tyrion, **who informs Varys.** _

**Arya and the Hound who is head for King's Landing bent on revenge**. _Sansa tells Gendry that Arya left and he sets out after her._

 **Tormund returns north with the Wildlings,** ~~taking Ghost at Jon's request.~~ _Jon tells ghost to protect Sansa while he goes south._

 **Daenerys and her fleet set sail for King's Landing, while Jon leads the Northern army.** _Jon agrees with Sansa that they should wait and regroup but Daenerys overrules them. A few of the Northern Lords privately express a desire to Sansa for the north to remain free and her to be their queen._

_Jamie goes with the army. He and Brienne say goodbye._

**At Dragonstone, Euron's navy ambushes her fleet, killing Rhaegal with ship-mounted scorpions.**

~~Missandei is taken, hostage~~. _Missandei is killed in the attack, washing up on shore_ _._

**Daenerys considers seizing King's Landing using dragonfire.**

**Varys and Tyrion** _(and Jamie?)_ **debate whether Jon would be a better ruler than Daenerys,** _pointing out how he did suggest they wait and is a better military strategist and has the loyalty of the north. They have intel that many of the northern lords have remained at Winterfell._

_Jamie and Tyrion suggest using the sewers to take the city to Daenerys but she refuses, saying that she wants no trickery, she wants the people to embrace her as their savior._

_Sansa receives a raven from Varys telling her Jon is the true heir to the Iron Throne and that there is only one dragon left. She takes this info to the Lords, who rather than re-pledge to Jon as she had hoped **names Sansa Queen in the North** , saying they won’t kneel to any dragon as long as there is a Stark around. _

**End of episode 4#**

~~Jaime feels compelled to return to Cersei, despite Brienne's plea that he stay.~~

~~Cersei defiantly refuses Daenerys' demand to surrender and has Missandei beheaded before an enraged Daenerys and Grey Worm.~~

**8x05 - The Bells**

**Varys urges Jon to advance his claim, but the latter refuses to betray Daenerys. Varys is sending/receiving letters from Sansa amongst other lords revealing Jon’s parentage.**

**After Tyrion reveals Varys' plot, Daenerys executes Varys by dragon fire**. _Jon is not present for this but hears of it afterward and goes to talk to Daenerys who has just_ _received word via Tyrion / Varys correspondence that Sansa has been named Queen. (“Is there no end to the false Queens I must defeat.”) Jon is concerned._

_Gendry catch up to Arya and the Hound just outside of King’s Landing. Thankfully the Hound is easy to track. Gendry heartfully he doesn't care about being a Lord and agrees to adventures with Arya and then they’re attacked by bandits and all fight them together. Once the baddies are defeated Arya is unsure about Gendry (but impressed by how he can handle himself in a fight) and the Hound gives her a talk, convincing her to abandon her revenge quest and go be happy with Gendry._

~~Jaime is captured, but Tyrion releases him so he can persuade Cersei to surrender the city, then escape Westeros together. Jaime, Arya, and the Hound each infiltrate King's Landing.~~

**Dragon-borne Daenarys destroys the Iron Fleet and most of the city's defenses, allowing her army to enter. Cersei's forces are quickly overwhelmed and the city signals its surrender, but an enraged Daenerys begins leveling the city, burning soldiers and civilians. The allied army follows her lead, slaughtering anyone in their path, horrifying Tyrion, Jon** _andJamie_ **.**

 _Jaime deciding to go save Cersei since Daenarys is sure to kill her and he still cares about the baby, uses the tunnels._ **He kills Euron but is himself mortally wounded.**

~~The Hound convinces Arya to abandon her longtime vendetta and save herself, then confronts the Mountain. The brothers ultimately perish after falling from a tower into flames.~~

**Cersei and Jaime reunite but are killed as the Red Keep collapses atop them.**

**Jon calls for a retreat as frantic civilians flee the devastation.**

~~Arya barely survives.~~ _Throughout the attack, we get to follow a nameless character who struggles to survive the dragon fire as Arya did. A sort of audience avatar of the horrors._

**8x06 - The Iron Throne**

**Following the battle, the Unsullied execute captured soldiers upon Daenerys' orders.**

**Tyrion finds Jaime and Cersei dead in the ruins.**

**Daenerys rallies the Unsullied and Dothraki, declaring she will lead them to liberate the entire world.**

_Tyrion and Jon talk about Daenerys’ plans and Tyrion say either Jon takes the throne or learns to handle her. I thought I loved her. I thought she was a good person. I was wrong. I need to do something about it. Tyrion cautions him not to do anything rash and is firmly on Daenerys side still._

~~Tyrion denounces her and resigns as Hand, then is imprisoned for treason to await execution. Arya and Tyrion separately warn Jon that Daenerys is a threat to him and House Stark.~~

**Jon confronts Daenerys** about _her plans to go dethrone Sansa and take back Winterfell,_ **unable to halt her destructive path, kills her. Drogon melts the Iron Throne, then gently carries Daenerys' body away.**

**_____ The "Epilogue" bit ____**

_A beat up, the Hound accidentally runs into Bronn at a tavern where they get into a fight about the last chicken. It’s implied he killed the Mountain and survived the burning of King’s Landing. The Hound kills Bronn and gets his chicken in a darkly comedic scene._

**Tyrion proposes that all future monarchs be chosen by Westerosi leaders, rather than through familial succession.** _Sansa does not go to things landing for Jon’s trial or the picking of a new monarch but sends Bran, Brienne and a note “kill my cousins and the whole north will descend upon you.”_ **Bran Stark is proclaimed king, titled Bran the Broken** **.** ~~He grants Sansa the North's secession as an independent kingdom,~~ _the north, already independent gets to stay that way and_ **he appoints Tyrion as his Hand.**

 **Jon is sentenced to the Night's Watch** _after Bran tells them another long night will come,_ **to appease the Unsullied, who then set sail for Naath, Missandei's homeland.**

 **Tyrion reorganizes the Small Council – Brienne,** ~~ **Bronn**~~ **, Davos, and** _Lord of the Vale kid_ ~~**Sam**~~ **– to rebuild King's Landing. Podrick is knighted.**

_The Stark sisters, Jon (and Gendry) are reunited at Winterfell. Sam is maester there now with Gilly about to have her baby. Jon will always be welcome at Winterfell, "traitor" or not. The show ends with a sign that spring is on the way._

**The End**

~~Arya sets sail to explore west of Westeros. Jon rejoins Tormund and Ghost at Castle Black, leading the Wildlings north of the Wall.~~

Note: If Jon goes to the wall, Arya and Gendry on adventure, etc is left to our imagination, but it ends where it started with the remaining Starks safe in Winterfell (only now they are truly safe rather than the ‘fake’ safe season 1).

**The Biggest Changes**

1\. Jamie acts in character and 8 seasons of character development isn't thrown out the window by having him leave Brienne the way he did. In the end, it's a "spur of the moment" choice to go save Cersei showing that no matter how much he's changed he can't escape her. IDK I feel like this works much better.

2\. The Hound and Arya stuff + the hound vs. the Mountain - taking the fight part where the Hound fights the Mountain out, at most keeping the bit where the Hound suddenly is there and Cersei runs past him leaving the Hound and the Mountain to fight without us seeing it would feel much more suspenseful. Because frankly the mountain is already dead and the city is fucking on fire. That whole fight was just so boring despite how much they hyped Cleganebowl. Also having this bit cut out it leaves room for Gendry / Arya.

3\. Since they decided to go with the whole Arya + Gendry sleep together and he proposes to her, the fact that they did nothing more with it is uninspired. Arya ending up agreeing to marry Gendry would however be a better twist and reason for her to abandon the revenge quest she's been on for 6 seasons. Since the show did include their relationship in the first few episodes of season 8 paying this off and giving the Stark family a way to continue on (if Gendry would give up his Baratheon title and take the Stark name instead, which I feel he would.)

4\. Sansa becoming Queen during the show not during the epilogue. This would add tension and give Jon some actual motivation. Which takes us to 5.

5\. Jon Snow would need to actually show his feelings. If he's meant to be in love with D, we would need a little bit more of them actually being in sync and him moving past her being his aunt. This would make him killing her - deciding to do so to protect Winterfell, his sister /cousin and the rest of Westeros - from her and her dragon fire much more impactful. But at the same time he can't just be all "She's My Queen" and "I Will Never Betray Her" because that's not Jon. That's not Jon in love. With Ygritte we have him bantering and arguing and all that good stuff. We got none of that with D.

6\. Bronn does not get to be on the fucking small council! Just no. I like him as comic relief but as one of the people meant to rebuild a war-torn continent? Just no.

7\. Ending with the Starks together, not apart. They were the heart of the story and even if they will be separated again in the future, seeing them together in Winterfell one last time is what we deserved. Disagree? I will fight you.

  
**What I Didn't Include To Keep it Kind of "Cannon" But I Would Have Liked To**

1\. Political Jon. Basically, this theory was "Jon is just pretending to be Dany's b*tch" and is just trying to save everyone / protect the north and saying/doing what she wants but he doesn't truly love her.

2\. Jamie surviving/ not going to Ceresi at the end. I feel like Brienne deserved a happy ending and the acceptance, love and companionship she'd found with Jamie was key to that. Not saying you need a man to be happy but you do need your soulmate. And those two were as close as you can get in Westeros to a soulmate epic love story. Also, Jamie himself went through a whole lot of shit and grew much more as a character than Tyrion for example. So if one Lannister was to survive it should in my mind have been Jamie. So perhaps in my ideal world, Jamie and Tyrion would have hatched a plan for Tyrion to go save Cercie while Jamie got the boat and then Tyrion was killed with her, which would have been an interesting twist because she did always think he was going to kill her (and in the end he's coming to save her and dies because of it.)

3\. Tyrion dying. See above. Or just him not getting essentially the happiest ending of them all despite him being a very gray character and during the past few seasons him not actually doing much right or even having a decent plan one time.

4\. Jonsa. Jon/ Sansa. This has been since the lukewarm Jon/ Dany romance of season 7, my preferred endgame paring. While there was plenty of hints at this for most of season 6, 7 and early 8 nothing came of it in the show and thus in this "cannon" how it should have ended I didn't add it in but stuck to the ships we already had (Braime and Gendry/Arya).

5\. Missandei surviving. As the only woman of color on the show for the past how many seasons? Missandei's death was a little extra tragic especially as it was used as a motivator for Daenerys to get extra angry and kill people. Her last words being Dracarys felt so wrong to me because that was not who Missandei was, at least not to me. Since no couple can be happy and alive on GoT I'd have killed Greyworm instead and had Missandei be given a place on the small council as a sort of ambassador/ trade contact with the free cities on the other side of the narrow sea.

6\. Iron Man showing up to offer to watch Winterfell while Sansa went on a holiday.

7\. Hot Pie becoming the McDonald's of Westeros.

8\. Ghost finding his one true love and lots of Direwolf puppies running around Winterfell.

9\. Arya killing Dany wearing someone's face. Really Arya wearing anyone's face in season 8.

10\. Jon being King. Because really, wasn't he the one most suited for it? If not, why have all this drama around him being the heir! So much potential thrown out the window right there.

11\. The Prince of Dorn. 

12\. Sam being Lord and ruling beautifully with his Wilding-Lady wife and their seven children.

13\. A one season spin-off where two warring villages ban together to killing Drogon - the last dragon - kind of Romeo/ Juliett setting but with a big honking dragon they need to kill!

______

What do you think? Would you prefer my season? What about my "didn't include" list? What's on your wishlist of amazingly fun/cool/ dramatic/ twisty things you'd have liked to have seen in season 8?


End file.
